With the google webmaster tools, you have to upload a html file with a specific name (looks like a Guid) to enable your ability to use the provided tools with your site.
Using the URL Shortcuts under web management, you can just put the file name in the shortcut URL and point it to anything in your site that resolves (/journal). This will convince google that the file is there and that you can use the tools.
So I am up early this morning. I have already taken a shower and gotten dressed and its still only 5:40am. I have been waking up at 5 all week but this is the first time I got out of bed and did something. I probably should have gone on a bike ride but I woke up with some ideas about the site and I wanted to write some of them down.
Why do I have this site? Because I am a web developer and I ought to have a website. Like many web developers already out there and blogging, I'd like to do some stuff about code or whatever but most of what I do isn't particularly new and I feel like I am more than just a web developer. I have other interests that I want to delve into here. Since I have bought my Android, I have been listening to a lot of podcasts. (Another thing I want to blog about at some point soon). Some of them have been from the twit.tv network. This is where Leo Laporte has created an internet radio/tv/broadcasting station about tech and the internet. This has made me aware of a lot of the things that people do on the internet that I wasn't doing 3 months ago. Twitter, friendfeed, and all this social media stuff that people in the media are talking about because everything else is just bad news about the economy. Blogging to these guys is so... six years ago. But I haven't every really gotten off the ground with it.
I want this blog to be useful to people so I intend to have tech stuff that I discover on the job. I also intend to do some stuff about the SCA. I think there are enough web developers talking out there to the echo chamber that is the developer community. I'd like to use some of my powers of web development and technical geekiness in areas that aren't about web development and technical geekiness. So I guess I am choosing historical recreation geekiness. The idea I woke up with this morning was to go get a cheap video camera and start collecting interviews with various SCA persona and find about about them. I really loved the Lions Road podcast while it was going and its too bad it didn't last. I'd like to create something that will help the SCA bring more people in that will enjoy its good times. It so easy for people to get caught up playing World of Warcraft, why not do these things in real life with people who are right in front of you rather than over a wire?
So I need to figure out how to have some separate blogs so that the internet can get some focused pages to return in search engine results but still have them consolidated into one feed that is this site. I have some ideas about this as squarespace supports creating redirects to certain pages. So I should be able to create a page called JeffMartin.com/sca and have it just be my blog posts about the SCA.
I also know from reading other blogs that in order to be a decent blog you have to just go for it and write on a regular basis. So here I am writing. I know not all of it will be interesting to all people, or even some people, but with practice I hope I will be focusing my efforts.
Welcome to my new site. It is hosted at Squarespace which I have really enjoyed working on. It would be nice if there would be a revamp of Dot Net Nuke that would be as nice as this is to work on.
I decided it was time to get a new site. My old one was kinda slow and lacked a lot of the information that I really wanted to put into my website. This should have a nice blog and continue to grow and be a pleasure to work in. I plan on writing blog entries both on technology and the SCA, as well as any other journalling that I'd like to do.
I am very open to comments and interested in who comes here and what they think.
Jeff Martin's personal website. Contains a resume, blog and links to social media.